Rex Wu Jr. and Alexandra Lin fiercely campaigned to fight back against the toxic environment of racial hostility they endured as Asian students at Montana State University. They ran for student government, led "anti-hate" events about racial harassment, and spoke before the Montana Board of Regents about the university's failure to protect minority students. Eventually, the federal government launched an investigation into the university.

But evidence supplied as part of two recent legal cases involving the pair suggests that much of the harassment they cited, which they largely blamed on conservative students and campus groups, was actually perpetrated by Wu himself.

Recent graduates of Montana State University, Daria Danley and Dylan Dean, filed a defamation suit against Wu last year alleging that he and Lin had "weaponized false racism accusations" for political causes and personal gain.

"[Lin] and Defendant Wu orchestrated campus-wide propaganda condemning MSU's alleged indifference to 'students of color' — all built on their manufactured crisis," reads the complaint.

The lawsuit draws on a separate federal cyberstalking case against Wu that concluded in December 2025. He was found guilty of one count of cyberstalking and sentenced to 18 months in prison, which is to be followed by three years of supervised release.

As Wu and Lin coordinated to raise awareness on campus about racial discrimination, Wu — who served as president of the Chinese Cultural Club on campus — disguised his identity and sent electronic communications that created the impression of rampant hatred against LGBTQ-identifying individuals and fierce racism against Asians. Wu admitted to FBI agents in February 2025 that he had sent several harassing emails to Lin, and he eventually entered a guilty plea as part of a deal with prosecutors.

One concerning email Lin received, according to a court document submitted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey K. Starnes, was from the email address "patriotfrontmt@proton.me" that said "Faggots want to groom white children we wont [sic] stand for this we will turn all asains [sic] into submissive faggots." The sender's account was tied to a residence where Wu had lived.

"It is not an excuse but being in college during COVID as a Chinese American is something few will experience. Unfortunately, Mr. Wu and the victim [Lin] in this case did," says Wu's sentencing memorandum.

The offer of proof submitted by the assistant U.S. attorney also acknowledges the existence of malicious communications sent from email accounts that give the impression of belonging to the conservative association TPUSA, such as "tpusaatmontanastate@protonmail.com" and "tpusainc@proton.me." From those accounts, emails with the subject line "Killing all the groomers and faggots" and "Repent the grooming children" were sent to the Montana State University Queer Straight Alliance, which Lin belonged to. However, the assistant U.S. attorney's court filings do not expressly attribute the TPUSA-labeled emails to Wu.

"It is clear . . . that Wu was creating communications that more likely than not would have been associated with someone clearly not Chinese," says Wu's sentencing memorandum. "What race or ethnicity is not entirely clear but Wu clearly hid his identity to acted [sic] as a bigot, supremacist, and a bully. . . . Wu would normally want to advocated [sic] for Chinese and people in the LGBQ community when in the end he did the opposite."

But Wu didn't simply use a randomly generated alias when sending those bogus messages. He deliberately impersonated Danley and Dean in a "malicious campaign" that led to "reputational damage, educational disruption, and social ostracization," according to their defamation suit against him.

And while Lin was cast as the victim in the cyberstalking case that resulted in Wu's imprisonment, Danley and Dean's lawsuit alleges that both Wu and Lin capitalized on the hoaxes for political gain, particularly in student government elections. The complaint argues that Wu and Lin acted in concert to exploit the "hoax," although Wu is the only defendant because Lin's alleged conduct took place outside the statute of limitations.

"[Wu] emailed a racist death threat to Lin, carefully crafted to frame Danley as the sender," reads the defamation suit. “One week later, Wu sent an even more vicious threat — racist, pornographic, and adorned with Nazi symbols — impersonating Dylan Dean.”

Danley alleges in the lawsuit that Lin targeted her with sexually unwanted advances when they were sorority sisters. Danley claims that she criticized the sorority's use of "preferred pronouns" on name tags in 2021, for which Lin accused her of "hate speech." Shortly thereafter, Danley was expelled from the sorority and kicked out of the house, so she stayed with a friend during a period of temporary homelessness.

A screenshot supplied in the lawsuit shows Wu stating in writing that "Alexandra [Lin] did the pronouns stink because Daria wouldn't sleep with her."

Lin later lodged more serious accusations, claiming that Danley placed a noose in her closet with a note reading "Kill Yourself." The university launched an investigation, and the vice president for communications at Montana State University publicly confirmed in an article published on October 27, 2023, that the investigation concluded "there was no noose."

The university's Office of Institutional Equity issued a "no-contact" order between Lin and Danley on September 20, 2021, which the lawsuit says amounted to "branding" Danley as "a dangerous racist." The order is functionally a restraining order issued by a university that states the arriving party must leave the location upon seeing the other. However, only Danley faced additional restrictions: She was banned from accessing the sorority house and attending any events hosted by the sorority, regardless of the location. Additionally, Danley specifically was required to report any contact with Lin, including accidental contact.

The university filed a formal administrative complaint against Danley for "discrimination" and "discriminatory harassment" in October, 2021, due to her criticism of "preferred pronouns" and Lin's claims. MSU offered to dismiss the charges if Danley underwent "sensitivity training," which she declined.

"I refused to do the sensitivity training because I didn't voice an opinion that was derogatory towards her, I never made any sort of racist remark, and I never said any slur," Danley told National Review. "And by taking the sensitivity training, I would be saying that I had done something wrong, and I would be letting her win by getting away with it. I chose not to do it because I was not going to let her walk all over me and other people who had my values."

In February 2022, the university dismissed all charges against Danley — but the no-contact order remained in effect and prevented her from attending sorority events, even after the national headquarters reinstated her membership in September 2022. Danley sued administrators at the university and the Montana commissioner of higher education. Her action ended with a settlement agreement, and the university rescinded the order in March 2023, 18 months after it had been imposed.

But shortly after the no-contact order was rescinded, Wu launched an attack against Lin that was designed to look as though it had come from Daria Danley, according to the defamation lawsuit. Wu created the email "DARIA_DD78@proton.me” and sent the following email to Lin with the subject line "killing the chink" :

"Hi Chink I have people watching your house day and night. One of these days you will get what's coming to you. This isn't Missoula in real Montana we kill gooks like you."

That same email address and message are mentioned in the offer of proof submitted by the assistant U.S. attorney in the cyberstalking case against Wu.

These incidents combined ruined Danley's reputation, along with her college experience. "I was anxious all of the time because of how the students and faculty were looking at me," she said. "It felt like very few people showed any type of support."

She learned the identity of the perpetrator in 2025 when the cyberstalking case against Rex Wu emerged, and she was "very, very glad to see that someone was finally named." But when the stories about Wu's involvement broke, Daria says nobody reached out to her other than individuals who had already been supportive, and she did not receive any apologies from peers who were previously hostile on campus.

Just days after Wu emailed Lin the fabricated death threat sent under Danley's name in March 2023, Wu and Lin attended a Montana Board of Regents meeting and spoke about the safety of minority students on campus.

It is unclear whether Lin knew at the time that the message had come from Wu. Lin did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

When addressing the Montana Board of Regents, Lin repeated the allegations she had previously lodged against Danley without explicitly naming her. Additionally, Lin suggested the university had not taken enough action against racial threats.

Over the last three years, I have experienced overt racism and violence at the hands of another MSU student. I have been called a chink [and] an Asian bitch. I was told that I should not go to public events because I would give students Covid because of my race. I have been told that I should kill myself. Those threats were made real when I found a noose in my room. . . .

MSU has failed me and all other marginalized students. . . . MSU has not made an official statement informing students of these targeted racial threats. Their continued inaction has deprived us of the ability to make informed safety decisions on campus.

When speaking to the Montana Board of Regents, Wu raised alarms about racially motivated hateful incidents — even though he had just sent slurs and a threat under Danley's identity to Lin.

"Hate crimes and hate incidents are becoming increasingly prevalent on our campus, and it is increasingly important for educational institutions nationwide to have clear and effective policies in place to address these issues," Wu said at the meeting. He later added, "When these policies are not enforced, it leaves students of color in a vulnerable position."

Later in March 2023, Lin and Wu co-organized an "Anti-Hate Teach-In," which was described on a flier as "an action oriented discussion of preventing BIPOC and LGBTQ+ hate at [Montana State University]."

In a response submitted to a Google Form created for that event, Wu impersonated Dylan Dean by supplying Dean's email address and describing himself as member of a conservative-leaning group, Americans for Prosperity. According to the defamation suit, Wu submitted a response that linked to a pornographic anime image with Nazi swastikas and the message "All inferior races will be turned into faggots!" According to the documents from the cyberstalking case, the message also stated, "My friends in the CS department have told me [Lin] will be at this event. You better watch out we know where you live chink."

The defamation suit alleges that Wu then ordered a pizza to Lin's personal address in Dean's name. After the incident, Lin claims to have left the state.

In an interview with National Review, Dean said he believes he was targeted because he was a high-profile conservative on campus whose affiliations over the course of his undergraduate years included Americans for Prosperity, Students for Liberty, Young Americans for Liberty, and the pro–Ron DeSantis group Ready for Ron. He noted that he "obviously" didn't submit the response to the Google form because he wouldn't attach his name to a threat, and at the time the Google form response was submitted, he was not active in Americans for Prosperity.

An MSU student newspaper article stated that "[b]oth the pizza order and the Google form threat were attributed to Dylan Dean," which the lawsuit describes as a "false attribution" that "solidified Dean's reputation as a violent racist among his peers and faculty."

"I wouldn't be surprised if this hurt my ability to get employment," Dean said. "If you typed in 'Dylan Dean' and 'Montana' on Google, these sorts of articles were the first to come up."

The defamation case further alleges that, throughout the spring of 2023, Lin routinely cited the malicious communications as evidence of racial hatred on campus to bolster her campaign for student government. But in April, the university removed Lin from the ballot on the grounds that she had "discouraged other candidates' participation based on protected class." In text messages, she denounced "two privileged white dudes" who were "putting self interest above the common goal" by refusing to withdraw their candidacies, according to screenshots contained in the lawsuit.

Nevertheless, Lin proved to be an ambitious activist who attracted media attention beyond the campus publications, and she has been featured in outlets such as the Montana Free Press, the Missoula Current, and the Daily Montanan. Through her advocacy, Lin even got the federal government involved. Lin said in an interview that she printed and distributed “about 5,000" flyers on campus with instructions on how to contact the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, which began investigating the university for discrimination in 2023 under the Biden administration. The office had received more than 20 formal complaints related to discrimination against members of the Queer Straight Alliance, a group Lin belonged to at the time. Lin described herself as the original complainant to the office, according to the Montana Free Press.

Lin publicly testified in opposition to state bills, and she became president of the College Democrats of Montana in 2023 — although the organization released a statement in 2024 saying she was “unanimously impeached" for exaggerating the amount of money the organization had raised, lying to organizers about their promised compensation, stealing merchandise, and plagiarizing.

"Youth political organizing is hard enough without bad actors. For that reason above all else, we no longer associate with Alexandra Lin — and encourage others to consider the same course of action," reads an archived version of a statement the College Democrats of Montana released on December 26, 2024, that has since been removed from the internet.

By contrast, Wu won his student senate race, and he promised to "push for policies that promote inclusivity, diversity, and equity" on campus.

Lin verbally admitted in April 2023 to Dean's now-wife that she did not believe Dean was responsible for sending the messages, according to the defamation case. However, that same month, she filed a petition for a temporary restraining order against him and alleged that he had harassed, stalked, and abused her by sending racist death threats. The state court granted the order, and Dean was served by the Gallatin County Sheriff's Office on the day he was taking an important exam. The order against him later resulted in the loss of his Nexus, Global Entry, and TSA PreCheck accounts. Dean delayed his graduation from May 2023 to August 2023.

"You know, I don't know what impression people should have of me," Dean said. "But it should be based on things I've actually said."

Danley and Dean are seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages to punish Wu's "malicious" conduct, attorney's fees, litigation costs in a trial by jury. Wu has defaulted and does not have representation. National Review was unable to reach him by phone or email.

When asked what she wants people to know about her, Danley responded, "I have been building up an answer to that question for five years, and it is still hard to put into words."

"I want people to know that . . . I am a good person. I judge people on the content of their character. How you choose to be in life, that is all up to you. It is not my place to judge," Danley said. "And I am proud of myself for sticking up for what I believe in and sticking up for myself in a time when I could have hobbled away and hidden and let it happen. I chose not to. And I just want people to know that I would never do something that she had accused me of that was attributed to me. I can say that with my whole heart."

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Montana College Student Resorted to Racist Harassment to Justify His Own 'Anti-Hate' Campaign

Rex Wu Jr. dedicated himself to rooting out racist harassment on campus. A recent legal case revealed he was ... READ MORE

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